Discours du pape en 2015 zebi

1 . “Be joyful and glad” ( Mt 5:12), says Jesus to those who are persecuted or humiliated because of him. The Lord asks for everything; and what it offers is real life, the happiness for which we were created. He wants us to be holy and he doesn't expect us to be content with a mediocre, watered down, inconsistent existence. In reality, from the first pages of the Bible, there is, in various forms, the call to holiness. This is how the Lord proposed it to Abraham: "Walk in my presence and be perfect" ( Gen 17 : 1).

2 . We should not expect here a treatise on holiness, with many definitions and distinctions that could enrich this important theme, or with analyzes that could be made concerning the means of sanctification. My humble goal is to make the call to holiness resonate once again, trying to insert it into the current context, with its risks, challenges and opportunities. Indeed, the Lord elected each of us to be “holy and immaculate in his presence, in love” ( Eph 1: 4).

First chapter

THE CALL TO HOLINESS

The saints who encourage and accompany us

3 . In the Letter to the Hebrews, various testimonies are mentioned which encourage us to "run with constancy the test which is offered to us" (12, 1). We talk about Abraham, Sara, Moses, Gideon and many others (cf. 11, 1-12, 3) and above all we are invited to recognize that we are enveloped in "a great cloud of witnesses (12, 1) who encourage us not to stop on the way, who encourage us to continue walking towards the goal. And among them, there can be our own mother, a grandmother or other close people (cf. 2 Tim 1: 5). Perhaps their lives have not always been perfect, but, despite imperfections and downfalls, they went ahead and pleased the Lord.

4 . The saints who have already arrived in the presence of God keep with us bonds of love and communion. The Book of Revelation bears witness to this when he speaks of the martyrs who intercede: “I saw under the altar the souls of those who were slaughtered for the Word of God and the testimony they had given. They cried out in a loud voice, "How long, holy and true Master, will you be slow to do justice?" "(6, 9-10). We can say that “we knew that we were surrounded, led and guided by the friends of God […] I must not wear alone what, in reality, I could never wear alone. The troop of the saints of God protect me, support me and carry me ” [1] .

5 . During the beatification and canonization processes, we take into account the signs of heroism in the exercise of the virtues, the gift of life in the martyr and also the cases of the gift of his own life in favor of others, including until death. This gift expresses an exemplary imitation of Christ and is worthy of admiration on the part of the faithful [2] . Let us remember, for example, Blessed Maria Gabriela Sagheddu who gave her life for the union of Christians.

The saints in the door next door

6 . Let us not think only of those who are already beatified or canonized. The Holy Spirit spreads holiness everywhere, in the holy faithful people of God, because “the good will of God was that men do not receive sanctification and salvation separately, without any mutual bond; he wanted to make them a people who would know him according to the truth and would serve him in holiness ” [3] . The Lord, in the history of salvation, saved a people. There is no full identity without belonging to a people. This is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual, but God attracts us by taking into account the complex web of interpersonal relationships that are established in the human community: God wanted to enter into a popular dynamic, in the dynamics of a people.

7 . I like to see holiness in the patient people of God: in these parents who educate their children with so much love, in these men and women who work to bring bread at home, in the sick, in the elderly nuns who continue to smile. In this constancy to go forward every day, I see the holiness of the militant Church. This is often the holiness '' next door '', of those who live close to us and are a reflection of the presence of God, or, to use another expression, '' the class average of holiness '' [4] .

8 . Let us be encouraged by the signs of holiness that the Lord offers us through the most humble members of this people who “also share in the prophetic function of Christ; he spreads his living witness above all by a life of faith and charity ” [5] . Let us think, as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross suggests to us, that through the intermediary of many of them the true story is constructed: “In the darkest night arise the greatest figures of prophets and saints. But the stream of mystical life that shapes souls remains largely invisible. Certain souls which no history book mentions have a decisive influence at the decisive turning points in universal history. It is only on the day when all that is hidden is revealed that we will also discover to which souls we are indebted to the decisive turning points in our personal life ” [6] .

9 . Holiness is the most beautiful face of the Church. But even outside the Catholic Church and in very different environments, the Spirit arouses "signs of his presence, which help the very disciples of Christ" [7] . On the other hand, Saint John Paul II reminded us that "the testimony given to Christ to the blood has become a heritage common to Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants" [8] . During the beautiful ecumenical commemoration that he wanted to celebrate at the Colosseum on the occasion of the Jubilee of the year 2000, he affirmed that the martyrs are a “heritage which speaks to us in a stronger voice than that of the makers of division ” [9] .

The lord calls 10 . All this is important. However, what I would like to recall with this Exhortation is above all the call to holiness that the Lord addresses to each of us, this call that he addresses to you too: "You have become saints for I am holy ”( Lv 11, 44; cf. 1 P 1:16). The Second Vatican Council emphatically emphasized this: “Provided with such abundant and great salutary means, all who believe in Christ, whatever their condition and state of life, are called by God , each in his own way, to a holiness whose perfection is that of the Father ” [10] .

11 . "Everyone on their way," said the Council. So do not be discouraged when you contemplate models of holiness that seem inaccessible. There are witnesses who are useful for encouraging and motivating us, but not for us to copy them, as this might

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